Capt. Ed Taylor said on Monday that details of the fire are still sketchy but investigators believe the blaze might have been started by someone smoking a cigarette in the store, at 7320 Griffin Road. Police were expected to question six teenage employees of the store in connection with the blaze.

Taylor said there were about 50 employees in the store when the blaze started at about 8:30 p.m. Because it was the end of the business day, there were no customers.

"All we did this morning was to go through some of the debris to try to find out the exact origin of the fire," Taylor said. "We're going to be out here for some days. All we can say right now is that the fire started in the back area."

Taylor said it was too early to set a damage figure.

The blaze spared the newly planted mango trees behind the store and a nursery at the entrance of the property. Employees there sprayed poinsettia and Mexican heather plants in preparation for the nursery's reopening today.

"For some reason, I don't know if it was the way the wind was blowing or what, but the fire didn't get the nursery," said Anette Rizzi, nursery manager. "Fortunately, the packages for Christmas have already gone out since that deadline has passed. We'll get through this just like we've gotten through other things in the past. We've survived hurricanes before. We just made it through Hurricane Irene. It'll be fine."

There were no serious injuries but at least one employee who would not give her name wore a leg brace from an injury she said was sustained during Sunday's chaos. Employees said Spyke's Groves owners, Barbara and Robert Spiece, had instructed them to stay home and avoid reporters on Monday. While a handful of the fruit pickers and packers showed up, they were mum about Sunday's events.

Spyke's is a Davie landmark, dating back to the days when more than 10,000 acres in the town were dedicated to citrus groves.

The grove's original owner, Harry L. Spyke, arrived in Fort Lauderdale from Michigan in the early 1920s and opened a small grocery store on Las Olas Boulevard. After a brief stint in the Navy, Spyke opened his first citrus packing house on First Avenue. In 1948, he moved his business to Davie and Spyke's Grove was born. Today, Spyke's granddaughter, Barbara Spiece, and her husband, Robert, operate the store, which includes a gift shop, retail fruit stand and tropical garden.

In the early '90s, animal rights groups frequented the store after they said the Spieces were mistreating a 300-pound black bear named JoJo that the couple kept as a tourist attraction. The couple maintained the bear was well cared for but in July 1995, they agreed to send the bear to a wildlife refuge in Punta Gorda.

Word of the fire shocked the small community of growers in the area. "It's just a terrible and sad thing," said Bob Roth, whose New River Groves is another Davie landmark.

Tamika Simmons can be reached at tsimmons@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7909.